Honestly, I’d rather have the hippies over the liberals any day. lol.

They were raised by hippies. I realize the actual hippies are long extinct, but their stupid ideology lives on in all kinds of blue haired nose ring freaks. Let’s set the beavers aside for a minute, and discuss when it’s appropriate to open a season on stupid people, I think that’s been a long time coming

I’d vote for that.

Boys boys boys...somebody need a hug?

I believe here, the riparian set back schemes are salmon protection related. They are probably a good idea? That is not going to change, probably. Everybody loves salmon. Beaver only have a few friends.

We only have set backs on forest service, state timber sales or private we cut right to the creeks, so long as we can keep everything out of the creek. Occasionally there’s gonna be a big red cedar that won’t cooperate, so those stay. And that only applies if it’s salmon bearing, if not it’s treated as a mud puddle and they don’t care if we put logs in it.

Here, the last 30 years or more. Personal use logging 100 to 300 foot from waterways ( depending on the manager at the time) All land sales along creeks and rivers have had setbacks. Even my trapline cabin permit required a setback. Personal use logging is more selective cutting of spruce which would really have little impact on the riparian forest of spruce, birch, and cottonwood, but such is life. All State land.

Ironically, In the end the spruce bark beetle took out all the spruce anyway.

That makes sense if you think about it, the state doesn’t gain anything from cabin permits or people harvesting their own firewood/lumber, they do gain from commercial timber sales. So I think the almighty dollar has something to do with it, they’ll happily tell you to cut your cabin logs or firewood away from the water, but when I have a 6 foot spruce next to the creek, they want to be paid for it, they don’t want it standing there (they estimate the value of a timber sales prior, but what ends up in the deck is what gets paid for) also could be an accountability thing, they know they can’t get blood from a stone if things get messy (personal user), but they know we have millions in commercial insurance to latch onto if we make too big of a mess

I think there are different standards depending if you are in region 1, 2, or 3.
ALASKA
FOREST
RESOURCES
& PRACTICES
ACT: AS 41.17

You’re probably right, I only know how we do things in SE. My time in south central revolves around the winter months, so trapping and firewood is all I worry about, I’m not doing anything resembling commercial forest practices that time of year (I have work available here all year, but in the winter we have more days sitting around because of weather than not, so my time is better spent doing other things)

I remember reading a study out of OR that talked about the effectiveness of riparian setbacks. It was temperature specific whether it was good or not. Some very cold streams opening up the edge of the stream helped salmon by increasing the amount of food produced in the stream.

It'll never happen as long as ODFW is allowed to have hired hunters slaughtering the lions. They like it that way, they don't have to deal with the antis complaining about the evils of hound hunting, or deal with John Q. Houndman, and they kill as many or more lions every year as the general public did when hunting them with hounds was legal, so they don't cause enough problems to raise too big a public outcry. If ODFW weren't allowed to use hounds and traps to control the population and get rid of problem cougars, we would have a chance of getting a cougar season back, because they would cause enough problems, eat enough livestock and kids to create an outcry big enough to actually get a season again.

Not really sure how the ODFW “program” works but I do know 4 different houndsmen here that are allowed to run bear, lions and bobcats all year except during spring bear season. No harvesting except for in season bobcat but they tree them, tranq them and collect dna samples and collar the lions and collect dna from the bobcats and bears. So at least over here, they are not removing them. Just watching them.

Bearcat, I know some biologists that wish we could have a season on them. It will never happen.

Actually it isn’t ODFW that has professionals killing cougars. It is federal wildlife services that respond to damage, safety concerns. ODFW actually places many restrictions and and hoops that need to be jumped through on WS.

Actually it is ODFW that is killing them preemptively. They are driving ODFW trucks, working out of ODFW offices. I'm sure you would have to file a request to force them to give you the info and stats (and who knows how accurate they would report the numbers). But I have run into some of them numerous times in the woods, in certain areas, and one guy in particular after several years and numerous encounters he became friendly enough to drop numbers in casual conversation. I knew they were high, I had seen the precipitous drop in lion sign and had seen him with dead cougars, to many times, but I was shocked at the numbers he mentioned. But they would choose a unit or area, and work on it for three or four years, and then be moved to another one. Yes they were regulated by whoever their boss was in ODFW (no idea on that score) and had to remain with the boundaries of the unit they were assigned. But within that unit they were given free rein, hounds, traps, snares, calling, they were expected to use them all. The couple guys I knew from one office were expected to kill every cougar they could come up with in their unit, year round, and the numbers were prodigous. Another guy I knew somewhat, and sold a young dog to before I found out he was going to contract (different office, different way of doing things) for ODFW was given a strict quota of how many he was to kill in his unit that year.

Hey beaverpeeler, did your state rep say anything about how this bill will affect otter trapping? I’m guessing they’ll close otter trapping wherever beaver trapping is closed like they have been?

Pretty certain the senators have very little info on how the bill will be laid out once passed. But since there are no provisions or mention of anything except beaver one would assume that otter, nutria, and all the other furbearers would be unaffected.

Are these programs still ongoing in the areas you referenced?

ODFW paid WS to kill them here with a similar protocol as you described and then also had private hound guys registered as volunteers killing them on regional quotas as well. The areas where the volunteers worked had a remarkable increase in deer numbers immediately.
The volunteer programs ended here in 2018 or 2019 I believe, deer numbers plummeted in those areas within a couple years.

Oregon has become a predator pit; there was a reason our predecessors managed predators differently in the past.

If you see your ODFW buddies tell them to come over to the coast range. We're overrun with longtails. For that matter, the Cascades opposite Eugene as well.